The Osaka High Court has upheld a 30-year prison sentence for 54-year-old Tomoyo Matsuo, who was convicted of murdering his two young nephews by setting fire to their home in Inami Town, Hyogo Prefecture, in 2021. The ruling, handed down on March 14, rejected the prosecution’s appeal for the death penalty, maintaining the same sentence as the initial trial at the Kobe District Court Himeji Branch.
Presiding Judge Hisashi Ito supported the original verdict, affirming that Matsuo killed his nephews out of resentment toward their parents.
The court recognized that the crime stemmed from a long-standing family dispute and that Matsuo’s mild intellectual disability played a role.
The judge concluded that the maximum fixed-term sentence of 30 years was not excessively lenient.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty in the first trial and argued in the appeal that the sentence was unjustly light.
However, the high court found the ruling appropriate.
According to the verdict, on the night of November 19, 2021, Matsuo doused his two-story wooden home with gasoline and set it ablaze while his nephews, 12-year-old Yuki Matsuo and 7-year-old Masaki Matsuo, were asleep inside.
The fire claimed both children's lives.
This case underscores the complexities of family-related crimes in Japan.
As debates over capital punishment continue, questions arise over whether cases involving mental disabilities should be treated differently in sentencing.